David Ruggles Prize Winner Vera Jiā Xī Mancini on collecting Pride and Prejudice

Our Bright Young Collectors series continues today with Vera Jiā Xī Mancini, who recently won third prize in the David Ruggles Book Collecting Prize for young people of color.

Where are you from / where do you live?

I was born in Bingznanz, Gvangjsih (Pingnan, Guangxi), of Cuengh (Zhuang) and Dai, Southeast Asian descent, raised in Seattle, Washington, and currently privileged to be a guest during my graduate studies in the ʻāina of Kauwalaʻa, Pilipili, Wailele, and Puahia on O‘ahu, part of the larger territory recognized by Kānaka ‘Ōiwi as their ancestral grandmother, Papahānaumoku.

What did you study at University? What do you do now for an occupation?

I recently graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in history focusing on gender and sexuality and a book studies concentration specializing in book arts and librarianship. I am pursuing my MLIS at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, intending to specialize in cultural heritage, Indigenous, and ethnic enclave special collections librarianship serving historically oppressed communities and focusing on neurodivergent accessibility in libraries.

Please introduce us to your book collection. What areas do you collect in?

My most extensive collection consists of copies of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen in various languages worldwide. However, I only collect copies from friends and family who bought the book while in the country whose language the book is in. I do not purchase copies online, as that defeats the purpose of the collection, which tells many stories of international travel and relationships. Additionally, I have much smaller collections of books with interesting art or bindings.

How many books are in your collection?

I currently have 13 books from 12 countries in my collection.

What was the first book you bought for your collection?

The collection began with a gift from my father in 2013. He gave me his copy of Pride and Prejudice in English, published in 1980 when I was twelve and entering middle school. It became the first adult, unabridged book I ever read. Soon after I read the book, I went on my first trip without my parents, traveling alone to New York to meet with my grandparents before continuing to France. While there, I made the first acquisition for my collection in French. The following year, my father began traveling more for his work as a speech-language pathologist for children on the autism spectrum. Each time he took a long trip for work, he would ask me if I wanted him to bring me anything, and I would always tell him I wanted a copy of Pride and Prejudice in the local language.

How about the most recent book?

My most recent acquisition was a gift from a friend whom I met while in undergrad, and she was studying in America abroad from Cypress. She went home this summer and has purchased a copy in Greek from a local second-hand bookstore for me.

And your favorite book in your collection?

مكتبة األنجلو :Egypt ,Cairo .أمين سالمة by Translated .الكبرياء والهوى .(Austen Jane (جين أوستن 1996 القاهرة ،المصرية. When I was fifteen, my father went to Cairo, Egypt, on a trip sponsored by the State Department with an NGO called Hands Across Egypt to give talks and educate people about working with differently-abled people. While there, he met with a young woman at a university who mentioned she was attending a book fair later that day. He told her about me and my growing love for literature, and she told him she shared my passion for Pride and Prejudice. She helped him get me a copy in Arabic from the local book fair. I love the artwork of this copy, with a hand-painted artistic style and the interpretation of Elizabeth Bennett as a woman with darker skin of Southwest Asian or North African descent with clothes resembling styles of the earlier half of the twentieth century. I feel connected with the young woman my father worked with, this depiction of Elizabeth Bennett, and this specific book in a unique way that I cannot fully articulate.

Best bargain you’ve found?

Aside from very generous gifts from my friends and family who wanted to support me and my love of books throughout my childhood and young adulthood, the best bargains I have ever found were the books that I found in the Goodwill, Value Village, and secondhand bookstores in my neighborhood and around the Coast Salish and Salish Sea area I grew up. Last year, I found a beautiful hand-painted scroll of poetry and paintings from the Canton area in a small shop called Kay’s in Eastsound on Orcas Island. It was an affordable price for a 21-year-old college student, and the older man who ran the store gave me a discount when he heard I was a local to Seattle visiting family friends on island.

How about The One That Got Away?

As a young college student, there are many books that have gotten away in the sense that they were far beyond my means. However, the book I would consider “The One That Got Away” would be the miniature copy of Pride and Prejudice that I lost to the bottom of my closet or the underworld beneath my bed sometime in 2020. Perhaps someday, it will resurface.

What would be the Holy Grail for your collection?

My holy grail for the P&P collection would be a copy in my native language, Sawndip. I would like to collect this copy myself and travel back to my Indigenous homeland someday.

Who is your favorite bookseller/bookstore?

I have formed special memories and relationships with many bookstores and sellers throughout the years, from visiting the Strand and Powell’s like they were massive candy shops when I was little to Christine of Honey & Wax and Yoshi of Johnathan A. Hill Bookseller encouraging me as a budding bibliophiliac in recent years. However, the three bookstores I consider my favorites are the local bookstores I have found in each of the three places I have been lucky enough to live — Ophelia’s Books in Seattle, Raven’s Used Books in Northampton, and Native Books in Honolulu. 

Each of these three shops represents my favorite part of bookshops: the local community and sense of home that I find there. I will never forget the calico cat that takes up residence on the rickety spiral staircase down to the basement of Ophelia’s who would greet me when I was reading, the moving bookshelf and hidden room in the back of Raven’s, or the feeling of slipping off my shoes and reading on the lauhala of Native books for hours. These things make a bookstore a memory and a lifelong love for me.

What would you collect if you didn’t collect books?

I collect local artwork wherever I travel or live, particularly when I have time to meet and bond with the artist. I have many art pieces of my friends with whom I have traded or copies of my artwork, forming something of an art bartering system within my art community and friend group. I also collect tea cups.